Intro to Literature - Cedarville University - Hodgin - Test #2: Drama

"Trifles"

Written by Susan Glaspell

"Death of a Salesman"

Written by Arthur Miller

"Doctor Faustus"

Written by Christopher Marlowe

"The Glass Menagerie"

Written by Tennessee Williams

"Beauty"

Written by Jane Martin

"Fences"

Written by August Wilson

"Hamlet"

Written by William Shakespeare

Soliloquy

In drama, a speech by a character alone onstage in which he or she utters his or her thoughts aloud

Aside

A speech that a character addresses directly to the audience, unheard by the other characters on stage, as when the villain in a melodrama chortles: "Heh! Heh! Now she's in my power!"

Stage Business

Nonverbal action that engages the attention of an audience

Tragedy

A play that portrays a serious conflict between human beings and some superior, overwhelming force. It ends sorrowfully and disastrously, an outcome that seems inevitable

Comedy

A literary work aimed at amusing an audience. In traditional comedy, the protagonist often faces obstacles and complications that threaten disaster but are overturned at the last moment to produce a happy ending

High Comedy

A comic genre evoking thoughtful laughter from an audience in response to the play's depiction of the folly, pretense, and hypocrisy of human behavior

Low Comedy

A comic style arousing laughter through jokes, slapstick antics, sight gags, boisterous clowning, and vulgar humor

Tragic Flaw

A fatal weakness or moral flaw in the protagonist that brings him or her to a bad end

Hubris

Overweening pride, outrageous behavior, or the insolence that leads to ruin, the antithesis of moderation or rectitude

Realism

An attempt to reproduce faithfully on the stage the surface appearance of life, especially that of ordinary people in everyday situations

Naturalism

A type of drama in which the characters are presented as products or victims of environment or heredity.

Comic Relief

The appearance of a comic situation or character, or clownish humor in the midst of a serious action, introducing a sharp contrast in mood